Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Let me finish. We do not need legislation to do so. If it pointless to give communities access to the grid if they do not have the financial resources to connect to the grid or to build the renewable energy, whether it is biogas, wind, biomass or whatever the case may be. We need a comprehensive approach that will assist communities in getting a co-operative up and running, developing the renewable resource whatever it is and getting access to the grid. That is what I want to do. It is not just about grid access. We could provide grid access tomorrow morning but if we did so we will not see a rush of community groups developing renewable energy resources. They cannot do so because they do not have the capacity or financial resources to do so. What we are looking in the context of the review of the current supports is how can we actively support communities.

Last month, I spoke to my Scottish counterpart, Minister Cunningham, at a bilateral meeting of the Council of Ministers. She said that the mechanisms that Scotland used to support energy generation by communities have not been as successful as hoped for and, prior to the vote on Brexit, we had agreed to have further engagement to see how Ireland could learn from Scotland in this respect. For example, what have been the positive aspects of that? How can we better develop that? I am trying to do exactly what Deputy Smith wants me to do and that is to encourage communities to produce their own heat and electricity locally, not only to meet their own needs but to export it on to the grid as well. How best to do that is the issue.